The Secret’s Secret
In the New Yorker, a look at the roots of The Secret in Emersonian “New Thought.”
[F]or much of its history, New Thought was viewed as a progressive project—a way to help ordinary citizens seize control of their fate. The historian Beryl Satter has argued that New Thought was, in large part, a women’s movement, and one that reflected a pattern of shifting expectations. “Until the turn of the century, women’s New Thought texts only ambiguously praised desire and wealth,” Satter writes. “They could not be too overt, because late Victorians linked desire and wealth with manliness.” By the early years of the twentieth century, books and magazines had sprung up around the movement, with an increasingly practical bent. When New Thought writings shifted in emphasis from mastering desires to fulfilling them, they were presaging a feminist revolution.
Better Sex Through…Trying
A study posted at PsychCentral: Simple Methods Heighten Women’s Sexual Satisfaction
New psychological research finds that many women with low sex drives reported greater sexual satisfaction after taking a placebo and participating in a clinical trial…Expectations to improve sex and a willingness to work on sexual problems appear to be key toward obtaining greater sexual satisfaction.
Internet Daters are Not Losers (and 9 Other Research-Based Tips About Online Dating)
PsyBlog scans the research and comes up with 10 Psychological Insights About Online Dating. Number one:
Internet daters are not losers: Contrary to the stereotype, there’s little evidence that internet dating is the last resort of social misfits or weirdos. In fact, quite the reverse. Internet daters are more likely to be sociable, have high self-esteem and be low in dating anxiety (Kim et al., 2009; Valkenburg, 2007). These studies found no evidence that people use online dating because they can’t hack it face-to-face. It’s just one more way to meet new people.
Brain Push-Ups
Another vote for getting up and moving around: Can Exercise Make Kids Smarter? (NYT)
M.R.I.’s provided a clearer picture of how it might work. They showed that fit children had significantly larger basal ganglia, a key part of the brain that aids in maintaining attention and “executive control,” or the ability to coordinate actions and thoughts crisply…
Study: Studies Ignored
People think an expert is an expert only if they agree with the expert’s conclusions (Science Daily).
“It is a mistake to think ‘scientific consensus,’ of its own force, will dispel cultural polarization on issues that admit scientific investigation,” said Kahan. “The same psychological dynamics that incline people to form a particular position on climate change, nuclear power and gun control also shape their perceptions of what ‘scientific consensus’ is.”
On Collaboration
Slate begins a series on creative pairs: Two is the Magic Number.
The sensation of “mirror neurons” helped further dissolve the distinction. About 10 years ago, a team of Italian researchers showed that certain neurons that fire during actions by macaque monkeys—when they pick up a peanut, for example—also fire when they watch someone else pick up the peanut. It’s probably overblown to say—as many have—that this phenomenon can explain everything from empathy and altruism to the evolution of human culture. But the point is that our brains register individual and social experience in tandem.
What Kids See
Children and Adults See the World Differently, Research Finds
Unlike adults, children are able to keep information from their senses separate and may therefore perceive the visual world differently, according to new research…
School Phobia
Kids who really don’t want to go to school addressed in When a Doctor’s Note for a Student Doesn’t Help (NYT):
The first time I realized I was complicit in school refusal, I didn’t even know the term. It was about a decade ago, and my patient was a boy who seemed to be spending his whole first-grade year sick with one thing or another…
CBT v. Loneliness
Science Daily: Addressing Negative Thoughts Most Effective in Fighting Loneliness
[T]he four interventions that helped people break the cycle of negative thoughts about self-worth and how people perceive them were the most effective at reducing loneliness. Studies that used cognitive-behavioral therapy, a technique also used for treating depression, eating disorders and other problems, were found to be particularly effective.
Just a Coincidence
New at YANSS: The Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy.
The Misconception: You take randomness into account when determining cause and effect.
The Truth: You tend to ignore random chance when the results seem meaningful or when you want a random event to have a meaningful cause.
The fallacy gets its name from imagining a cowboy shooting at a barn. Over time, the side of the barn becomes riddled with holes. In some places there are lots of them, in others there are few. If the cowboy later paints a bullseye over a spot where his bullet holes clustered together it looks like he is pretty good with a gun.